We are pleased to announce that Radio Newquay has been awarded a broadcast licence by OFCOM – details of our launch will be revealed soon.

Radio Newquay will bring you regular news updates, the latest surf forecasts, news of events & happenings around the town plus specialist programmes featuring performances from our vibrant music scene. A whole selection of organisations, including schools, charities, groups, voluntary organisations and local businesses will have access to Radio Newquay and play a part in our output.

Who are the Radio Newquay team?

Mark Chapple

Founder & Director

Our founder, Mark Chapple, who made Newquay his home a number of years ago, has worked for two decades in UK radio. He has experience in radio management and on air, broadcasting in Cornwall and Sussex. For the past 10 years he has also worked with our armed forces’ broadcaster (BFBS). Mark has experience in community radio, including stints at the highly successful award winning Radio Scilly where he also helped cover the World Pilot Gig Championships. He is currently helping a team launch a community radio station in Buckinghamshire. The process has given Mark valuable insights and experience which will greatly help Radio Newquay.

Sarah Bunt

Director

With an honours degree in Journalism and English Language, Sarah’s career has been shaped by her experience in the media. As well as being NCTJ accredited and holding a certificate in the industry-standard Teeline Shorthand at 100 words a minute, at just 27-years-old Sarah has more than six years experience in the field.

Her broadcast experience began at St Agnes based station Atlantic FM where she spent a year working with the news team, as well as assisting with on-air productions and features and supporting outside broadcasts, developing all the skills and understanding of working within a commercial station. Whilst studying at university, Sarah volunteered with community station, Express FM.

Work included creating short news bulletins, reading on-air as well as attending community events and functions and creating interesting and informative packages for various shows throughout the day. Sarah then spent around five years in print journalism, working for the Newquay Voice newspaper; a very successful weekly paper. It was here that Sarah developed strong and reliable contacts within the community and wrote a mix of stories that reflected what was most important to the community.

During this time, Sarah was twice featured as a contributor on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show and had a number of exclusive stories that were used by both the national and international press. It was her time at the Newquay Voice that she developed and nurtured her local contacts and quickly became trusted to represent them and their issues correctly, accurately and without any bias. These contacts remain today and are incredibly supportive of Radio Newquay. Among these are key community leaders, prominent charity groups and local government representatives, all of which will have a key part to play in the content of Radio Newquay.

Sarah strongly believes that already being part of the community in Newquay is key to this project’s success. She is very much part of the town’s daily life, having lived in the area for many years, as well as having a strong historical family background in the town. Already being an active member of the community means she understands the town’s needs, what the important issues are and will be able to accurately portray and reflect these in the station’s broadcasting.

As an active member of Newquay Towan Blystra Lions Club, Sarah works with her volunteer colleagues to improve the lives of those in need in the local area, fundraise for local (and national) projects as well as acting according to the Lions International motto “to serve”. Sarah strongly believes this is incredibly important as residents in the town look to the club for help when it is needed, support for key town events and respects the work they do – demonstrating that as a member, Sarah is already a key part of the community, recognises what the town’s needs are and how best to serve them.

Matt Bunt

Director

Matt’s career is one built on versatility, and through his work with local and hyper-local broadcasting and media platforms has evolved into a multi-skilled professional.

In 2002 Matt was part of the team that launched ‘Shock Radio’, an RSL radio station in Salford. Matt then became the station manager, running a further two 28-day RSLs across Manchester (2003, 2004). This experience involved sourcing funding from both grants and commercial sources and co-ordinating volunteers. He then managed the day-to-day 28-day RSL of Malibu Surf FM in 2005, a long-standing and very successful summer radio station based in Newquay.

In 2006 Matt was then invited to join the team launching Atlantic FM – a full-time commercial radio station which covered Cornwall. Throughout his time with Atlantic, he took on most tasks at the station from content generation through to technical, commercial and people management.

In 2012 Matt joined Cornwall’s Pirate FM, initially working as part of the content team to produce local on-air content. Very soon he was invited to head up their digital department, helping to steer the digital direction of the station and seeing significant growth in both revenue and reach figures. During this time Matt oversaw a team of five digital producers, and was very active in producing multi-media content to a professional standard himself.

Between 2006 – 2017, Matt has also operated a professional photography company specialising in local press and PR photography. This includes becoming a photo-journalist for The Newquay Voice and other hyper-local titles. Matt was also the sports editor for the Newquay Voice, regularly covering local football, rugby and surf news.

Radio Newquay features on Radio Today Programme

Matt Bunt and Mark Chapple from Radio Newquay were invited to feature on a special edition of the Radio Today Podcast which focused on local radio.

Radio Today is the leading website radio industry analysis and news, and the weekly podcast is listened to by thousands of people every week.

You can listen to their interview below – Our interview starts at around 16 minutes 30 seconds.